It was a photograph of a suicide note recovered from the mobile phone of Dr Payal Tadvi that helped the Mumbai police book three of her colleagues for allegedly abetting her suicide. Tadvi, who was from the Bhil Tadvi community, allegedly died by suicide following caste-based discrimination by her seniors in her hostel room at Mumbai’s B Y L Nair General Hospital on May 22, 2019. After initially registering an accidental death record, the Agripada police lodged an FIR the next day against the three accused based on a complaint by Tadvi’s mother Abeda, a Jalgaon resident. Abeda had told the police that her daughter was constantly harassed and humiliated by the three accused and had eventually died by suicide. While the police registered an FIR and recorded the statements of others, the clinching evidence came later. In their prima facie probe, the local police did not find any suicide note – crucial evidence in abetment cases – in Tadvi’s room. Later as per procedure, the police sent Tadvi’s mobile phone to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) at Kalina. It was the cyber team at FSL that gave the police their biggest evidence – a photograph of Dr Tadvi’s suicide note. The police said that she probably took the photograph, suspecting that the note would be destroyed by her seniors. It was this photograph from her phone that named three senior doctors – Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Mehare and Ankita Khandelwal – and formed the crux of the evidence against them in the chargesheet filed by the Mumbai Crime Branch in June 2019. The Crime Branch booked Ahuja, Mehare and Khandelwal, invoking charges of abetment of suicide, destruction of evidence and common intent under the Indian Penal Code and under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act and Information Technology Act. To prove the charges, the police attached statements of nearly 180 witnesses, in addition to the note retrieved from Tadvi’s phone. In her note, Tadvi wrote that it had become “unbearable” for her to carry on with the alleged “torture” meted out to her by her seniors. Naming Ahuja, Mehare and Khandelwal, Tadvi said in the note that they are “responsible” for her condition. The three doctors were arrested and eventually released on bail. Last year, they had filed a plea to be discharged from the case which was opposed by the Mumbai crime branch.
